Method for coating and texturing a surface

ABSTRACT

The surface of a polished metallic panel is coated with a sizing and a heavy transparent ink is then silk screened in a pattern thereon. Next the surface is abraded, with the transparent ink protecting the areas it covers to produce a pattern of bright and dull areas. The entire surface is next covered with a protective lacquer coating, following which additional layers of transparent ink are silk screened thereonto substantially in registration with the first layer, yielding lense-like ink accumulations which produce an optical effect giving an illusion of depth to the panel surface. The built up areas actually appear as depressions.

1111 3,837,881 1451 Sept. 24, 1974 METHOD FOR COATING AND TEXTURING ASURFACE [75] Inventor: Leslie P. Hix, Union, Ohio [73] Assignee: Angel]Manufacturing Company,

Dayton, Ohio 22 Filed: July 3,1972

21 Appl. No.: 268,596

[52] US. Cl 117/8, 117/8.5, 117/45, 117/49 [51] Int. Cl. 1344c 5/00 [58]Field of Search 117/8, 8.5, 5.5, 45, 49; 51/312 [56] References CitedUNITED STATES PATENTS 1,410,344 3 1922 Ornstein 117/45 1,488,240 3/1924Gulick 2,262,281 ll/l941 METAL SHEET BRUSHING CLEANING 3,759,753 9/1973Becca et al. l 17/8.5

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 734,140 7/1955 Great Britain 1 17/45Primary Examiner-William D. Martin Assistant ExaminerStuart D. FrenkelAttorney, Agent, or FirmBiebel, French & Bugg [5 7 ABSTRACT The surfaceof a polished metallic panel is coated with a sizing and a heavytransparent ink is then silk screened in a pattern thereon. Next thesurface is abraded, with the transparent ink protecting the areas itcovers to produce a pattern of bright and dull areas. The entire surfaceis next covered with a protective lacquer coating, following whichadditional layers of transparent ink are silk screened thereontosubstantially in registration with the first layer, yielding lenselikeink accumulations which produce an optical effect giving an illusion ofdepth to the panel surface. The built up areas actually appear asdepressions.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures BAKE SILK SCREENING SILK SCREENING mamwswzw3.887. 881

- BAKE SILK SCREENING" V BRUSHING 2 BAKE CLEANING SlLK SCREENING METHODFOR COATING AND TEXTURING A SURFACE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Thisinvention relates to decorative surfaces, and more particularly tometallic panels or the like having decorative patterns and texturesthereon.

Various methods for coating or treating surfaces to make them moreattractive are well known in the art. These include coating them withattractive surface materials, as by spraying, rolling, brushing, and soon, or texturing the surfaces as by hammering, etching, etc.

Where it is desired to employ the attractive qualities inherent innaturally reflective surfaces, such as metallic surfaces, it is commonto begin with a polished metallic panel. The panel surface issometimes'coated with appropriate materials, sometimes is mechanicallyor chemically etched, and often is selectively painted in attractivepatterns. The final product is then usually given a protective coatingto preserve the metallic luster.

As is well known, however, these methods suffer from certaindisadvantages. If a very complex etching pattern is desired, mechanicalmeans for selectively abrading the metallic surface become impracticalfor obvious reasons. The cost of producing such a pattern then becomesamplified since selective chemical etching means must be employed.Similarly, where a textured surface is to be produced having theappearance and feel of depth, the surface must be worked mechanically,as by hammering, or rolling under extreme pressure. Alternatively, heavyinks may be applied in a given pattern to produce built up areas, butconsiderable amounts of such material are usually required to yield thedesired visual appearance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly, a preferred embodiment of thisinvention includes a polished metallic panel having selected surfaceareas abraded or made selectively dull in a complex and highlydecorative pattern, while the remainder of the surface retains a highluster. The pattern may be random, geometric, or a combination of each.The dull areas are abraded by an inexpensive mechanical means and thenon-abraded or bright areas have a nominal build up thereon oftransparent inks which produce a lense like or optical effect giving anillusion of three dimensional depth to the panelled surface.

In the method of this invention, a metal panel is first polished to ahigh luster and a transparent sizing is then applied to the surface andcured. Next a transparent ink, such as a transparent epoxy, is silkscreened onto the surface in the desired pattern by applying the ink tothe areas which are to retain their luster. After the transparent ink iscured, the entire panel is mechanically abraded, as by buffing orbrushing. The transparent ink protects the areas therebeneath, acting asan efficient resist.

After the panel is abraded it is cleaned and the entire panel is thencoated with a transparent lacquer to protect the abraded areas fromoxidation. Finally, several more layers of transparent ink are silkscreened onto the surface substantially in registration with the firstsilk screened layer.

The transparent ink selectively applied thus makes possible the use ofinexpensive mechanical methods of abrading the surface to form highlyselective and complex patterns of contrasting bright and dull areas, andthe several layers thereof additionally yield to the surface a uniqueoptical illusion of reversed texture or depth. That is, the built up inklayers over the polished portions of the surface actually appeardepressed, while the abraded areas appear raised. The optical illusionis due at least in part to the lense like action of the accumulations oftransparent ink. I

It is accordingly an important object of this invention to provide ametallic panel with a complex and highly decorative pattern ofrelatively bright and dull areas provided with an illusion of threedimensional surface depth characterized by the use of simplemanufacturing techniques, and to provide methods of making the same.

Another important object of the invention is to provide a method ofmaking a decorative surface as outlined above, in which relatively dullareas are selectively formed on a bright metallic surface by the use ofinexpensive mechanical abrading or brushing techniques.

A more particular object of the invention is the provision of anarticle, and a method of making the same, in which a silk-screenedtransparentpattern forms a resist, permitting the remaining surface tobe mechanically abraded to provide a desired pattern of selectiveabraded and non-abraded areas. In the preferred embodiment, additionalsilk-screened transparent layers are applied in substantial registrationwith that of the first layer to provide a build up forming a reverseillusion of depth.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing description, the accompanying drawings, and the appendedclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top view of a portion of adecorative panel according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross sectional view of a small portion of theFIG. 1 device taken along line 2-2 thereof, and illustrating the variouslayers of material on the abraded and non-abraded surface areas;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the steps and method for producinga decorative panel according to FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3A is a cross sectional view similar to FIG. 2 illustrating thelayers of material on the panel immediately following the cleaning stepin FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference to the drawings,and more particularly to FIG. 1, there is illustrated the decorativesheet or panel 10 of this invention. Panel 10 includes a metallicsubstrate 12, the surface of which has been polished and treated toyield a decorative, textured surface thereon.

With reference to FIG. 3, panel 10 is prepared by first taking a sheetof the metallic substrate 12 and polishing a surface thereof to a highluster. A layer of sizing material 14 is then applied to the sheet 12 bya coating roller 16. The sizing is cured by baking, following which afirst layer of transparent ink 20, such as a transparent epoxy, is silkscreened onto the sizing layer 12 in the desired pattern. While a randompattern is shown in FIG. 1, a geometric pattern may also be used.

After the transparent ink 20 is cured, the entire surface of the panelis subjected to mechanical abrading, such as by a wire brush 22. Thechoice of the brush type, or the use of a buffer, sand blast, and so on,is governed by the texture desired in the final product. The transparentink layer 20 acts as a resist, protecting the corresponding portions ofthe metallic surface thereun der from brush 22, while the sizing l4 andthe surface portions not protected by the ink 20 are abraded by thebrush. The surface is now characterized by a pattern of bright areasprotected by the coating 20 and a complementary pattern of relativelyduller areas as identified by the regions 23 in FIGS, 1 and 3A.

After the surface has been abraded as desired, it is cleaned, resultingin a configuration substantially as shown in FIG. 3A. The surface isthen covered in its entirety with a protective lacquer coating 25. Thelacquer protects the appearance of the surface, prevents oxidation anddeterioration, and assures long life for the panel.

After the lacquer coating has been cured, several additional layers oftransparent ink, such as layers 27 and 28, are applied as desired to thesurface of the panel substantially in registration with the first layer20. These additional layers are each individually cured, resulting in anembossed build up producing a surface which has an embossed feeling tothe touch.

The build up also produces an optical illusion. The heavy layers oftransparent ink produce lense like or optical effects in which the builtup areas actually appear depressed while the abraded areas appearraised. The shifting light patterns against the substantially unicoloredbackground produce this effect since the eye cannot perceive or resolvethe actual surface structure at ordinary viewing distances.

It is well known, of course, that with opaque materials bright areasappear to stand out while dark areas appear to recede. This effect alsoobtains with this invention, since the abraded areas, being duller, havea whiter appearance than the metallic areas. However, this effect isvery much enhanced by the light patterns which result from the lenselike action of the built up ink areas. The effect is an illusion ofreversed depth, and may be enhanced by placing the layers 27 and 28slightly out of registration with the layer 20.

As a specific example of the method and product of this invention,aluminum panels have been successfully prepared according to thisinvention by first polishing a surface thereof to a high luster and thenroller coating a layer of size coating thereon. The size coating usedwas Lillys No. 78 Size Coat, produced by Lilly Industrial Coatings,lnc., Indianapolis, Ind. The size coat was cured by baking at 275F for20 minutes.

Next the transparent ink or emboss material was silk screened in thedesired pattern over the size coating. The emboss material was a clearepoxy produced by the Naz-Dar Company, Chicago, 111., and was cured bybaking at 275F for minutes.

After the surface was abraded and cleaned, the entire surface was rollercoated with No. 447 clear epoxy lacquer, manufactured by the EgyptianLacquer Manufacturing Company, Newark, NJ. The lacquer was baked at 275Ffor 10 minutes.

Two additional layers of transparent ink or emboss material of the sametype as the first emboss layer were then silk screened as above, and thefirst additional layer was similarly cured. The last coating was bakedat 300F for 20 minutes.

Variations may of course be made in performing this invention, withoutdeparting therefrom. As indicated, for example, the number of coats ofmaterial may be varied according to the final result desired. Similarly.color tinting material may be added to one or more of the sizing,lacquer, and/or emboss materials. With the appropriate choice of colorconfigurations the effect of the optical illusion can be enhanced bymeans of color brightness contrasts, as discussed earlier. Powderedmetals may also be used as long as the powder is tine enough to passthrough the silk screen.

An appropriate method other than silk screening may be used to apply theemboss material to the panel. Similarly, the sizing and lacquer may beapplied by other appropriate techniques, such as spray coating orcurtain coating. As previously mentioned, the registration of successiveink emboss layers may be shifted, for example, from approximately threeto five thousandths of an inch, to enhance the effect of the opticalillusion while still keeping the emboss layers substantially inregistration.

As may be seen, therefore, this invention has numerous advantages. Inaddition to being compatible with a wide variety of specific productiondesigns, depending upon available equipment, convenience, and theparticular application involved, the overall method is inexpensive andhighly efficient. An almost infinite range of patterns and combinationsmay be obtained, and all produced on a common production line, ifdesired, with only nominal changes from one pattern to another. The endproduct itself is highly attractive and highly durable. The surface hasa textured feel as well as appearance. The visual appearance oftexturing is quite substantial due to the peculiar optical effectsdiscussed above.

This invention thus provides a new and inexpensive method for abradingsurfaces which method simultaneously yields a highly desirable opticaleffect in conjunction therewith. The invention thus enables theinexpensive fabrication of highly decorative and atra t xs 1942 529 panes;

While the process and product h ereiii described constitute preferredembodiments of the invention, it is to be understood that the inventionis not limited to this precise method and article, and that changes maybe made therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A method for coating and texturing the surface of a substrate toproduce a decorative pattern thereon, comprising:

a. applying a curable liquid transparent sizing to the surface,

b. curing said sizing,

c. applying a first coat of curable transparent ink onto certainselected areas on top of said sizing,

d. curing said first ink coat,

e. abrading the coated surface to remove said sizing in the areas notprotected by said transparent ink,

f. cleaning the abraded surface,

g. applying a curable transparent lacquer coating over the surfaceincluding the remaining said sizing and ink coatings,

h. curing said lacquer coating,

i. applying at least one additional coat of curable transparent ink ontop of said lacquer coating in the same pattern as said first inkcoating and substantially in registration therewith, and

j. curing each said additional coating of transparent ink after theapplication thereof and before the application of a further said inkcoating on top thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said sizing, lacquer,and transparent ink coats includes color tinting material.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said substrate is a metallic sheet, andfurther comprising the step of polishing said metallic sheet to a highluster prior to the application of said coat of transparent sizing.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said curing steps is bybaking.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said transparent ink coats are appliedby silk screening.

6. The method of claim 1 where said sizing and lacquer materials areroller coated.

7. A method of coating and texturing a surface of a metallic sheet toproduce a decorative pattern having an illusion of depth on the texturedsheet surface, comprising:

a. polishing the surface of the metallic sheet to a high luster,

b. silk screening a first coat of transparent ink onto certain selectedareas of said sheet surface in a predetermined pattern,

c. drying said first ink coat,

d. abrading said sheet to change the reflectance characteristics of saidsurface in the areas not protected by said transparent ink,

e. cleaning the surface,

f. coating said panel surface with a liquid transparent sealing coating,and

g. silk screening at least one additional coat of transparent ink on topof said sealing coating in the same pattern as said first ink coatingand substantially in registration therewith.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said sizing, lacquer,and transparent ink coats includes color tinting material.
 3. The methodof claim 1 wherein said substrate is a metallic sheet, and furthercomprising the step of polishing said metallic sheet to a high lusterprior to the application of said coat of transparent sizing.
 4. Themethod of claim 1 wherein at least one of said curing steps is bybaking.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein said transparent ink coats areapplied by silk screening.
 6. The method of claim 1 where said sizingand lacquer materials are roller coated.
 7. A method of coating andtexturing a surface of a metallic sheet to produce a decorative patternhaving an illusion of depth on the textured sheet surface, comprising:a. polishing the surface of the metallic sheet to a high luster, b. silkscreening a first coat of transparent ink onto certain selected areas ofsaid sheet surface in a predetermined pattern, c. drying said first inkcoat, d. abrading said sheet to change the reflectance characteristicsof said surface in the areas not protected by said transparent ink, e.cleaning the surface, f. coating said panel surface with a liquidtransparent sealing coating, and g. silk screening at least oneadditional coat of transparent ink on top of said sealing coating in thesame pattern as said first ink coating and substantially in registrationtherewith.